The "Chairman of the Committee on Charity Lecture Bells," is one of the deputation, and perhaps if he should return to Boston, via Providence, he of the Journal, and his train-band, would have his "contribution box," et ceteras, o.k.—all correct—and cause the corks to fly, like sparks, upward.

It wasn't as strange as it might seem for the author to coin OK as an abbreviation for "all correct." There was a fashion then for playful abbreviations like i.s.b.d (it shall be done), r.t.b.s (remains to be seen), and s.p. (small potatoes). They were the early ancestors of OMG, LOL, and tl;dr. A twist on the trend was to base the abbreviations on alternate spellings or misspellings, so "no go" was k.g. (know go) and "all right" was o.w. (oll write). So it wasn't so surprising for someone come up with o.k. for oll korrect. What is surprising is that it ended up sticking around for so long while the other abbreviations faded away.

OK got lucky by hitting the contentious presidential election jackpot. During the 1840 election the "oll korrect" OK merged with Martin van Buren's nickname, Old Kinderhook, when some van Buren supporters formed the O.K. Club. After the club got into a few tussles with Harrison supporters, OK got mixed up with slandering and sloganeering. It meant out of kash, out of karacter, orful katastrophe, orfully confused, all kwarrelling or any other apt phrase a pundit could come up with. It also got mixed up with the popular pastime of making fun of van Buren's predecessor, Andrew Jackson, for his poor spelling. One paper published a half-serious claim that OK originated with Jackson using it as a mark for "all correct" (ole kurrek) on papers he had inspected.

So, I hope you're OK participating in yet another week of our game. Once the Linky goes live, you will be OK to post your musings with us, and our more than OK team will visit you. OK, so you know how this works.

Monday, 14 April 2014

Do you have any superstitions? I don't, except one, which I can attribute to my Grandmother who said it was very bad luck to cut your nails on a Friday or a Sunday. She had ignored this superstition once (on a Sunday) and the result was immediate disaster. An axe cutting into my uncle's leg, one snip of her finger nail and a cry coming from the bottom of the orchard. She was a great storyteller so this is a very much a synopsis but her tale was impressionably dramatic to a young mind and has stayed with me. As the old rhyme says:

Cut them on a Monday, you cut them for health;
Cut them on Tuesday, you cut them for wealth;
Cut them on Wednesday, you cut them for news;
Cut them on Thursday, a new pair of shoes;
Cut them on Friday, you cut them for sorrow;
Cut them on Saturday, you see your true love tomorrow;
Cut them on Sunday, your safety seek,
The devil will have you the rest of the week.

So cut your nails on a Wednesday for news, or alternatively visit the other contributors to ABC Wednesday where there will be news and views from all over the world.

Monday, 7 April 2014

Ever since I had a cats I also had suddenly mice. So if you suffer from Mice phobia don't read further. I would do the same when it comes to spiders.

My cats bring cute little mice in the house, proud of their prey and probably with the loving intention to show me what good hunters they are. The only problem is, they play a bit with the mouse and then go to other tasks, and the mouse looks for a comfortable, cat safe place to stay. Usually in the living room under the cupboard. I try to get him or her out and put some cheese on the floor, which the mouse eats with pleasure, cleans her whiskers and before I have time to catch her with help of a Newspaper folded into a cone, it has disappeared again under the cupboard. So far I have always managed to get the mouse out alive !

Unfortunately, sometimes it happens that the mouse doesn't survive the game, and it's really not a nice feeling when you climb out of your bed and step barefoot on a mouse corpse.

One day, when still half asleep I wanted to prepare my coffee, I saw a mouse head looking at the cat food with hungry eyes. I never found the body or the tail, they landed probably in one of my cats stomach.

My cat Rosie prefers toy mice which are more bearable. Quite the opposite to me she is a little housewife. During the nights she collects her mice and put them in the water bowls to do her laundry. I dry them for her on the radiator. Sometimes she also decorates my slippers with a mouse, or she puts them in the food bowls which is not so appreciated by the other three.

Therefore follow my advice, don't take a cat if there are mice around where you live !

Tuesday, 1 April 2014

Welcome to L week at ABC Wednesday! I decided to use the simple word LOTS for this week because I've noticed we've attracted LOTS of new contributors. That's simply wonderful because as memes go, this one has luckily been quite successful. Thanks to Mrs. Denise Nesbitt for her creative idea some 7 years ago, this meme has had contributors from all over the world starting in her native England and spreading to Canada, the USA, France, Italy, Australia, New Zealand, India, Brazil, Portugal, Spain, Serbia, and the Scandinavian countries. I've likely forgotten some so do let us know. Some people have had enough of ABCW and have temporarily lapsed from it, but new people keep arriving to keep our current administrator Roger Green and his loyal team of assistants extremely busy. So far in this Round 14, we're attracting well over 70 people and sometimes over 80! So if you'd be interested in joining the administrative team to help out responding to about 10 posts per week, just get in touch with our learnedleader Roger by leaving a comment below.